


The Great Divide Chapter 33

by Antigravity_Carnivore



Series: The Great Divide [33]
Category: Breaking Benjamin (Band), Project Vela (Band), STARSET (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dark, Alternate Universe - Future, Alternate Universe - Rock Band, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Band, Dark, Fluff and Angst, Future, Future Fic, Heavy Angst, Inspired by Music, M/M, Music, Musicians, Rebellion, Science Fiction, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-02
Updated: 2018-09-02
Packaged: 2019-07-06 02:52:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15876993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Antigravity_Carnivore/pseuds/Antigravity_Carnivore
Summary: Scott finds that he has to deal with and accept the fact that Tristan is now a full grown man, which brings on a entire set of new problems. Meanwhile, at Dawn, Lizzie seeks revenge for the death of her child.





	The Great Divide Chapter 33

Scott wanted a cigarette. He wanted nothing more than to inhale and fill his lungs up with the noxious, tar laced smoke and feel the numbing presence of nicotine run through his system. The events of the last few days had sent him on a downward spiral of depression where he felt as though he was slipping down a very steep cliff, and no matter how hard he dug his heels in and tried to hold on, he kept plummeting down further and further, drawing near to the edge of the precipice. It would only take one more tiny push and he’d go over the edge, never to recover. Everything was a mess. Thomas and Dustin had gone off to save what was left of Brock’s fading soul, Benjamin had become the dreaded Shepherd of the Damned, and Lizzie had succumbed to the Carnivore lurking inside of her. Leaning back against the wall, he took a long, deep breath and ran his hands through his hair. He couldn’t even protect the thing most precious to him, Lizzie’s little boy, Tristan. For a moment his thoughts went to back home, and to the life he left behind. 

He could almost feel the warm morning sunlight streaming in through the bedroom window on a lazy summer Sunday as he pulled the soft cotton sheets up around his shoulders. It was late autumn and the leaves on the trees had already turned to bright shades of orange and red. They clung to life on the branches, desperately holding on as a small breeze blew through, rustling and calling them to join their fallen brethren, spread out so beautifully across the wide lawn. Scott knew that he should get out of bed and make something of the day, but the terrible pain in his body resulting from the accident, begged him to stay, holding him in its agonizing clutches without mercy. Just a few more minutes of rest, that’s all he needed, then he could get up and deal with reality. There was nothing wrong with sleeping in on the weekends. After some time had passed, he heard the soft pitter patter of her bare feet coming up the stairs one at a time. She took the steps slowly, one at a time, the tray of tea cups and saucers held delicately in her small hands. Only 8 years old, she had frowned at Scott when he first presented her with her first play tea set. As he put the tiny colorful plastic cups in front of her, she looked up at him with her dark eyes and those perfectly curled lashes and frowned in disappointment. She didn’t want a ‘play set’ she wanted real dishes that made the ‘grown up sound’ when placed down on the saucer. Always wishing to make her happy, Scott returned the play set and spent the entire day at the mall with her, going from store to store to find the perfect china tea cups and saucers for his little princess. Much to his surprise, nothing there seemed to interest her, and this was a great relief, simply because money was tight in their home, and there wasn’t much of it to spend on frivolous things. He felt bad that he couldn’t give her everything she wanted, but since the accident, he had been out of work for weeks, dealing with excruciating pain and just trying to find the will to get out of bed in the morning. The only thing that kept him sane was that little girl and spending time writing music. They were far from poor, he always made sure that she had clothes on her back and food in her mouth, even if that meant he had to go hungry; he always found a way to make ends meet. 

Giving up the search for her ‘perfect grown up tea set’ the two of them headed home. Along the way, Scott turned up the music and they sang along to the usual play list of Breaking Benjamin and Starset tunes. She knew them well, each song from every album, all the lyrics, and loved it when Scott would spend time with her, playing the riffs on his guitar for her at night. These were special times that the two of them shared together that would forever remain with her for the rest of her life. Upon reaching their modest home, Scott pulled the car into the drive way, and only just had put it in park when suddenly the little girl threw open the door and bolted across the street, away from him. In panic, he called out to her, shouting her name over and over, she had never done anything so careless before and he was terrified that she would get hit by a car. Her hair spilling out from the pony tail tied up high on her head with a red silk ribbon, she skipped across the empty street, her bright eyes set intently on her destination. In a few seconds, she safely made her way across the street to where an elderly couple was having a yard sale and then waved to Scott, beckoning him over. Limping slowly, he joined her and gave her a stern warning about not running off, before giving her the chance to explain. Pulling on the edge of his shirt, she pointed at a very old, well used and chipped china tea cup set with mismatched saucers. It was the one that she had been looking for, something unique and ‘grown up’. Glancing at the price, Scott shook his head. They couldn’t afford it. It was an antique. With a sad look on her face, she reached up and put her hand in his and turned away from the prize sitting on the picnic table right in front of her. She wasn’t one to throw a fit, or tantrum when she couldn’t get what she wanted, she had been raised better than that, but Scott still knew that her heart was breaking after finally finding what she wanted. Turning around, he led her back towards the house when the elderly woman called out to them. She had long perfectly white hair that fell down to the middle of her back, and unusually bright blue eyes that did not reflect her age. She asked the little girl what she was interested in and after pointing at the tea set with a guilty stare, the old woman asked the two if they would remain for a moment. Curious, Scott agreed, and stood there in the driveway, waiting for the old woman to return as various other potential customers browsed the wares. Stepping away from the little girl, he watched as the old woman entered the garage and was speaking softly to her husband, a very intelligent looking elderly man a few years older than her with soft, delicate layers of gray hair that formed curls around the edge of his face. He nodded to his wife, and followed her out into the driveway, leaning heavily on a cane for support. A chill crept over Scott for a moment and he pulled his jacket tight around him. He didn’t realize that the temperature had dropped so suddenly during the day. The old man reached out and shook Scott’s hand and asked him if he was a musician. Scott, shocked by the man’s unusual uncanny knowledge told him yes and explained that it was merely a hobby, but he was anxious to pursue it full time. They chatted together for a few minutes, and then Scott noticed that the old woman and the little girl had been carefully wrapping up each of the antique plates and saucers in newspaper and placing them in a bag. Scott apologized to the couple and explained that they weren’t buying the tea cups, and waited for the little girl at his side to return it back to the table where she had found it. The old woman smiled, and said that she had changed her mind about selling it; it was a gift that she had wanted to give to the girl. She explained that it had come from their home, which was very far away, and that it was meant to go to her own children, but sadly, they had both long since passed away. She wanted to give it to the little girl, and made her promise to take care of it, so that one day; she could pass it on to her own children. Scott, amazed by the couple’s generosity, thanked them over and over again, swearing to them that he would see to it that he would stop in to check on them from time to time. There was something about this couple that picked at the corner of his brain, nagging him and making him feel very odd. 

Clink, clink, clink. The sound of those delicate china cups echoed down the hallway as Scott rolled over in bed and pretended to be sleeping. Soon his door creaked open and he could hear the sound of the tray being placed down on the nightstand. The smell of citrus soon assaulted his nose, and he had to try and hide his smile. She wasn’t old enough yet to use the tea kettle and make hot water, so she had filled the tea cups with orange juice for a pretend tea party. Pushing on his shoulder, she tried her best to wake him up, but her efforts were only met with loud, obnoxious, fake snores that annoyed her to no end. Irritated, she put one knee on the edge of the bed and hauled herself up, poking him over in lots of annoying places, calling over and over ‘wake up, wake up, wake up’. He didn’t respond. Frowning, she climbed on top of him and started bouncing, putting the full weight of her 8 year old frame right on top of him. Suddenly, Scott’s eyes shot open and he sat up, grabbing her by the waist and pulling her off and down onto the soft sheets of the bed next to him. She quickly curled up around him and twisted the scruffy hair of his beard hair around her tiny fingers. “Why are you up so early Ember?” He asked, as he slipped an arm over her shoulders.

“I wanted to surprise you with a morning tea party!” She smiled, her eyes beaming with childlike innocence. “And because I love you daddy!”

The door to the infirmary opened and a young man stepped out. He was only in his early twenties, and had been at the Shallow Bay for a short time before joining the medical staff. He was being trained in surgery under the guidance of the previous doctor, but the ‘incident’ with Selene had taken the doctors life, and now he found himself the only experienced staff available to give medical treatment, thrown into the situation head first and expected to look after the entire base. He was clumsy and nervous around the nurses; a temporary thing that Scott assured him would go away in time. He drew in a long breath and let it out, wringing his hands anxiously. “I put him on a warm saline drip, and gave him some antibiotics and painkillers. He’s running a fever, and is in a state of shock with mild hypothermia. I can’t tell you exactly what’s causing the fever, because with the power being out, I can’t run any tests. All I can do is make him comfortable and treat the symptoms.”

Scott felt a lump rising in his throat. “Is he going to be okay?”

The young doctor leaned against the wall. “Scott… you brought me a naked, shivering boy that was found outside. I can’t tell you that he’s going to be okay without knowing anything else about him.” He sighed and ran his hands over his face. “Listen—I am honestly doing what I can here, but I need a little trust. The people are really scared, after all that has happened, and now the sun disappearing, they are seriously freaking out. I think that boy in there has something to do with it all, and you’re withholding information from us. The people, they know you, they want to believe in you and trust you, but you have to be completely honest with them, and with me. They are willing to stand behind you and back you up, because you are all that they have left.”

“He’s not a boy.” Scott said quietly. He knew that the doctor was right, he couldn’t keep his theories to himself, but telling someone else made him fearful that he wouldn’t be taken seriously. He needed to keep a hold on things, and trying to force people to believe his theories might be a bit too much for them to handle after everything else that had happened. Still, Scott knew that he couldn’t keep it all inside of him; he had to talk to someone and make them believe, just in case he was right. “He’s a young man, and I think that it’s Thomas and Lizzie’s son, Tristan.” He paused, waiting for the laughter or ridicule from the doctor. None came, he remained silent and Scott cautiously started to try his best to explain. “He and his twin brother Benjamin are connected somehow, and they are being forced to share the same fate. I can’t imagine what is going on there at Dawn, but I know that we are seeing the consequences of it, through Tristan. I don’t know how it happened, but he’s no longer an infant, he’s an adult now and is sitting there in that room behind us, waiting for answers that I can’t give.”

“Are you certain that is who it is?” The doctor asked casually. The tone in his voice wasn’t confrontational or accusing, which relieved Scott greatly, but more so curious, and that was a big comfort to him. “I mean he certainly looks like he could be their child, but it’s a bit hard to believe that he went from being a baby to a full grown man in a matter of a day. I am not saying it’s impossible, I mean the FEC has screwed around with people before and it is a possibility, but I would like to have a little proof that he’s not some spy.”

“I don’t know how to prove it, it’s just a gut feeling that I have inside of me when I looked into his eyes. I knew who he was. I’ve known that family for well over a year now, and to say that I am close to them is an understatement. Thomas took me in and treated me like a brother, Lizzie trusted me with her children. I know them. It’s him, I am sure of it.” 

“There is only one way to sort this all out.” The doctor said. Reaching into his pocket, he withdrew a radio and punched in a few numbers. Scott could see the dull green glow from the readout illuminate the young man’s face as he held it up and spoke into it. “Hey Zeke, do you copy? This is Charlie up in the medical wing, how are things going down there?”

A bit of static came across the radio, and then a tired sounding voice replied. “Hey Charlie. Let me tell you, this sucks. Guarding the morgue when the power has gone out isn’t fun at all. You owe me big time for this, man.”

The doctor laughed. “You know that I would help you out, but I got my hands full at the moment up here in the Infirmary. I promise that as soon as the power comes back on I will make it up to you, okay?”

“Ya sure.” The voice on the other ended responded, he sounded more than a little sarcastic. “What do you need?”

Looking at Scott, the doctor pressed the button on the radio again, his hand was shaking. “I want you to go into the cold unit where we placed Tristan Bell’s body and open it. Don’t ask any questions just go in there and tell me what you see.”

“Wait. You want me to do what?” There was a long pause of hesitation. “Charlie---I don’t really want to go look at a child’s corpse. Hasn’t that poor kid been through enough?”

“Please.” The doctor said in a pleading tone. “It’s very important that you do this. We need to know.”

A blip of radio static. “We?”

“Scott is here with me. We have a situation. Just please go do as I ask.”

“Fine, I will do it, but I am telling you, I don’t like it.” Several moments passed, as Scott and the doctor stood in the hallway in silence, lost in their own thoughts. Scott knew from the second that the young man laid eyes on him that it was Tristan, there was absolutely no doubt in his mind, but unless he could prove it, no one would believe him. Part of him wished that it wasn’t true, simply because there would be too many questions. Questions from Tristan, questions from the people of the Shallow Bay, but he couldn’t answer any of them. How was he expected to be the leader, and gain people’s trust if he couldn’t explain anything at all? His thoughts were cut off by a loud beep from the radio. “Charlie, you copy?”

The doctor nervously fumbled with the radio, almost dropping it onto the floor, and hit the button. “Ya Zeke, we’re here. What did you find?” Both men stared at one another in the hall, breathless with anticipation.

“First off, I told you that I was uncomfortable with this, I didn’t want to do it… and now I am going to have fucking nightmares for the rest of my life.”

Scott grabbed hold of the radio. “Zeke, this is Scott. Stop wasting time and being so fucking dramatic. Tell me what you saw down there.” The man on the other end didn’t immediately respond, trying his best to collect his thoughts before responding and was slightly annoyed at being called out. Scott, growing anxious and impatient, pressed in the button again. “I am not messing around; tell me what you saw down there, that’s an order!”

The voice that responded to him this time was filled with fright. “I went into the storage room. The generators there are supposed to keep it at a controlled temperature, but the moment I opened the door and walked in, I felt this huge blast of freezing air just hit me right in the face and chest. It was so intense; it knocked the breath out of me. I checked the gauge and it was 30 degrees lower than it should be. I started to walk towards the metal containment chamber where the baby’s body was, and felt my entire body just start to tense up, and my hair stand on end. Something didn’t feel right. I wanted to turn around and run back out of there, but I knew that you needed it done. I came to the door and pulled it open, letting the metal slab slide all the way out before even looking at it. I didn’t want to see that poor kid’s body again, I was dreading it. He should have been left there in peace for his parents to return and bury him. I took a deep breath and looked down at the form on the bed. At first I thought it was some kind of joke, that someone had taken the boy and replaced his body with that of an old, burnt doll. It looked like a baby, but it was blackened and charred, like it had been in a fire for a very long time. I reached out to touch it, and when I did… It just crumbled into ash.” Zeke stopped talking, but kept his finger pressed on the send button of the radio. Scott and the doctor could hear the sound of his rapid breathing over the speaker, the sound of which only added to the tension of the situation. Some time passed before he spoke again. “There’s nothing of him…no skin, bones… nothing but ash.”

Scott handed the radio back to the doctor and walked past him into the Infirmary. He could hear the doctor say something quietly behind him, but he ignored it.   
The warm glow of the emergency lights from the generators gave everything in the large room a strange, amber glow that reminded him of sunsets back home. Across the room, he saw Tristan sitting up on the bed, with his legs dangling over the edge and a sheet draped across his waist, as well as one over his shoulders. It was strange to think that 24 hours ago, he was holding Tristan in his arms as an infant, and now here he was, sitting on the bed as a 20 year old young man. There were intravenous lines set up, pumping various fluids into him with plastic tubing taped in various locations over his pale flesh. His soft, wavy hair fell down around his face, hiding his sky blue eyes from view until he heard Scott enter. Slowly, he lifted his head and looked right at him. Scott stopped in his tracks, suddenly feeling very nervous. “You really are Tristan, aren’t you?” he asked softly.

The young man shivered underneath the thin sheet, and looked away. “I don’t know who or what I am…” His voice was barely audible, just above a whisper. “I am so cold. Scott. It hurts. Everything hurts. Help me. Please.”

Searching around the room, Scott found a thick blanket from one of the other beds and brought it over to him, gently wrapping it around the young man’s shoulders. He noticed the waves of coolness that were emanating from his skin, almost as it if he had been in subzero temperatures for a long time. “The doctor says that you have a fever. What you are feeling is mostly a side effect of it. Lie down and relax, let the medicine go to work on you. It will be okay. I am going to see to it that you are taken care of. You are safe here.”

Tristan lowered his head once again. “I can’t feel him anymore. There’s someone else there, in the darkness, inside my head. He’s whispering to me.”

Scott looked curiously at Tristan. The boy seemed so haunted, so frightened that it made his heart hurt. “What are you talking about?”

Taking a deep breath, Tristan curled himself up in the layers of material, trying desperately to gather some warmth around him, but it was of no use. The coldness wasn’t going away. “Benjamin. My brother. I used to hear him in my head all the time, I could feel what he was feeling, see what he was seeing. He was a part of me, as I was a part of him. Even when he was taken away, I could still hear him. Then suddenly, I heard him cry out, once… it was unlike anything I’ve ever heard before…He called for me… I tried to answer him, but I found that I had no voice of my own… it was taken away…and then everything went dark after that.” Tristan stopped for a moment and looked toward the window, seeing nothing but his own reflection there. “Then I heard a voice in my head again, calling me, telling me to wake up. At first I thought it was Benjamin, but it felt wrong. All wrong. It was someone else. Some who... I opened my eyes and found myself as I am now, out there on Prox, all alone.” He looked down to his dirt encrusted hands like they were strange and foreign to him. Tristan stopped and fell quiet.

Reaching out, Scott took hold of Tristan’s cold hands and held them in his. He had a distinct feeling that the boy was hiding something from him, a key point to his story that he wasn’t comfortable sharing yet. He thought for a moment about pressing him, making him reveal more, but Scott knew that he couldn’t put him through that. He had to gain his trust first. “You’re never going to be alone again, Tristan. I promised your mother that I would look after you and that’s exactly what I am going to do. We can get through this together.”

At that moment, the doctor walked back in the room. Scott felt Tristan tense up and retreat within himself, but with a comforting nod of reassurance, he calmed back down. “How’s the patient?” The doctor asked in a concerned tone, making his way across the room.

Scott let go of Tristan’s hands and gave the doctor some room to examine the young man. “He’s still freezing cold. Is there anything you can do to warm him up?”

The doctor shook his head. “No. As I said, he’s actually running a fever and is more than likely in shock. I can’t give him any medications without knowing what is wrong with him. I could guess at a few diagnoses, but I am still relatively new at this whole ‘doctor’ thing and I don't want to be wrong. I could be doing more harm than good to him.”

Without warning, Tristan suddenly doubled over in pain, letting out a loud groan and started to vomit massive amounts of stomach bile onto the floor for no reason. The doctor immediately stepped back, repulsed and slightly sickened by the sight. Scott returned Tristan’s side, just as he started seizing, his thin frame contorting with such violence that he slipped through his arms and fell off the bed, landing on the floor, pulling and stretching the intravenous lines. Diving down, Scott grabbed hold of him by the arms and yelled at the doctor. “Do something!”

With wide eyes, the doctor watched the whole horrific scene unfold in front of him and stood motionless. “I don’t know what to do! I don’t know what’s wrong with him. I can’t treat him without the proper tests.” 

Scott growled and desperately tried to hold Tristan still, hoping that by restraining him, he wouldn’t do more damage to his body, but the convulsions kept coming, one after another, gaining strength. “Screw your tests, think like a goddamn doctor.” He knew that if this went on, the young man would surely suffer some sort of brain damage, or perhaps even trigger a aneurism and die. The inexperienced young doctor had froze, and could do nothing but watch the scene unfold in front of him. “Fucking sedate him then if you aren’t going to treat him. He’s going to injure himself if he keeps this up!” Scott yelled to the doctor, trying to get him to snap out of his stupor. He quickly turned on his feet and ran to a nearby crash cart and grabbed a syringe and returned to the pair.

Standing over them both, the doctor looked to Scott. “I need to measure the dosage to make sure that it’s correct, if it’s too much then it might have potentially fatal side effects.” Letting go of Tristan, Scott reached up with one arm and grabbed the corner of the doctor’s shirt and gave it a quick yank, pulling the man down onto the bile covered, slippery floor with them.

“Goddamn it. Can’t you see he’s in distress? Do it already!” Scott snapped at him. Annoyed at his tone, the doctor grabbed hold of one of Tristan’s flopping arms and sunk the needle deep into his skin and pushed the plunger down. The drug started to flow through his veins and because of his highly agitated state, it went to work fast. Tristan stopped convulsing and a serene calmness descended on him. Scott held him as he slumped over in his arms, and looked at the doctor. “You need to grow a pair of balls and act when it is necessary, or else you’re going to lose people. Let this be a lesson for you.” 

Standing up, the doctor looked at his disgustingly stained clothes and then down at Scott and Tristan on the floor. “I am sorry. I don’t think I am cut out for this. I panicked. Maybe you should find someone else to be your new doctor.”

“Don’t be sorry. Learn from it.” Scott replied. “There’s going to be more situations like this that come up and acting as quickly as you can is going to be the key to survival. The seconds that you waste could mean life or death. Remember that for next time. I need someone like you who I can depend on, Charlie. I can’t take care of the people here in the Shallow Bay without your help. You are crucial part of our family. We need you.” After mulling it over in his head, the doctor nodded to him, with a look of respect and admiration on his face. Scott moved behind the now unconscious Tristan and tried to lift him. “Help me get him onto the bed.” Together the two men managed to get the young man back onto the gurney. 

“I’ll get a nurse in here to clean up this mess and bring some fresh sheets.” The doctor said.   
“He looked at the empty syringe that he had hastily shoved in his pocket, feeling a bit guilty. “Judging from the amount of sedative that I just gave him, he’s going to be out for a while, I think that maybe you should go get cleaned up too, Scott. The wound in your stomach probably needs to be taken care of and redressed. Hopefully you didn’t do any further damage to it by holding the boy down.”

Placing a hand at his side, Scott could feel the heat from his stab wound spread over the bandages, and he began to feel a little lightheaded. He knew that it was bleeding again, but didn’t care. He promised Tristan that he would stay at his side, and never leave him alone. “It’s alright. I’ll get it looked at later when you return. I want to stay with him.”

“As you wish.” The doctor turned to leave and then pulled a radio down from one of the cabinets and brought it to him. “Here, take this. If there’s any changes in him, or you need me, for… whatever just call and I will be right here.”

Scott gave the doctor a curious look. “What’s with the sudden concern?” His words came out slightly sarcastic, but he didn’t mean it and instantly felt bad. “I didn’t mean for that to sound like it did. It came out wrong. I am not that much of an asshole, I promise.”

The doctor gave him a smile and smoothed down the edges of his vomit covered shirt. “We’re all learning our roles here, Scott. None of us expected things to turn out the way that they did. We’re just going to have to find our way through this mess, together. Besides he’s my first patient…or rather… you both are…and I want to make sure that I don’t lose either of you.” Giving Scott a thumbs up, he was out the door and heading down the hall as fast as his feet could carry him. 

Alone in the dimly lit infirmary, Scott looked at the sleeping Tristan with pity. He felt responsible for the young man, and seeing him in pain like this made is paternal instincts kick in, and wish that there was something more he could do for him. After losing Ember, he never wanted to be a father again, but here he was, falling into a role that he could not escape from. A single tear rolled down his cheek, and he quickly wiped it away, knowing that he had to hold himself together for as long as he could. There were too many people counting on him now. Taking hold of Tristan’s unusually cold hand, Scott held it tightly and whispered to him. “I swear to you that we will get through this. Even if it’s the last thing that I do, I will find a way to get your mother back. No child should be left alone.”

Tristan’s slender fingers twitched slightly and Scott looked down at him. His eyes were moving rapidly underneath the thin, pale curtain of his eyelids. He was dreaming. As he watched, Tristan’s cracked and dry lips parted and he started to speak quietly. Scott leaned in, curious, listening. “I can’t feel you anymore… they took you away from me… It’s so cold here… alone… without you… I miss you.” Clutching Tristan’s fingers, Scott realized that Tristan was talking about his brother. Even subconsciously, the bond between the two boys was strong. He gently placed his hand on the young man’s forehead and smoothed the soft waves of his hair away from his face, and he started to speak again. “They destroyed my body, controlled my mind, and turned me into a monster… and now they’ve taken you away from me…you were the only good in my life… Brock…where are you?” Scott stopped and pulled his fingers away. He could see the beads of sweat start to build up over Tristan’s face. His brow furrowed and he appeared to be in a lot of pain. Scott turned around, hoping that the doctor would return soon, something was very wrong. Tristan’s fingers curled into fists and his voice started to become louder. “If it’s a monster they want, then it’s a monster that they will get. I will destroy them all for what they have done to you. Each one will see punishment… mother, father, brother… Prox will crumble and fall apart underneath my feet as I shed rivers of their blood in vengeance. I will fade into the wicked world and become the dark of you.” Scott stepped back, away from Tristan now. He knew that he wasn’t speaking about his twin, but hearing someone else’s thoughts, and it frightened him. Suddenly, Tristan sat up in the bed, his eyes shot open and Scott noticed that they weren’t the brilliant blue, but instead a hazy amber color. He reached out to his arms and ripped the intravenous lines from his veins and flung them away, leaving a thin trail of bloody droplets staining the sheet that was draped around him. 

“Tristan!” Scott hurried back over and grabbed the boy by his thin shoulders, shaking him gently. “Hey… wake up, you are dreaming.” Slowly, Tristan turned his head and looked at him for a moment.

“Scott?” 

Just as quickly as the moment of clarity came, it soon faded, and in one fluid motion, Tristan thrust Scott back away from him, letting out a terrible cry of rage. Scott stumbled backwards, dropping the radio, falling against some other beds and almost losing his balance. At that moment, the doctor entered the room again and Scott called out to him. “Something’s wrong with Tristan. He’s lost it. Stay away from him.” 

Across the room, Tristan stood up from the bed and started to make his way to where the doctor was standing, startled. The long white sheet followed him like a shroud, dragging on the ground and making a slight hissing sound. “He’s still dreaming.” The doctor muttered in awe. “It’s conscious sedation. His mind is asleep, but his body is awake, how impressive. The sedative did this, I knew the dosage was too high for him to handle. He can’t control his actions. Damn it!”

Seeing the doctor standing still, gazing at Tristan with curious eyes, Scott shouted to him. “He’s going to hurt you if you don’t get out of the way, you idiot! Move!” 

The doctor remained motionless, standing his ground. “We can’t let him leave here. He’s just sleepwalking, and having a lucid dream. Scott you have to wake him up gently to snap him out of it.”

“Fuck!” Scott shouted and darted around Tristan’s small frame and came to stand in between him and the doctor. Immediately, he stopped moving and looked at Scott with those hazy amber eyes that were not his own. “Okay, listen to me Tristan. We’re going to take this nice and slow. The doctor says that you are sleeping, so I have to find a way to get through to you to wake you.” Holding his hands up, he gently placed them on Tristan’s chest, holding him back, noticing that his skin was freezing cold now, almost too cool to touch. It was almost like that of a long dead corpse's flesh. The touch, skin on skin contact seemed to make a connection with him, and he relaxed a bit. Taking the advantage, the doctor moved away from the doorway and ducked into a side room, disappearing from sight. Scott swore underneath his breath and turned his attention back to Tristan. “What you are ‘seeing’, these aren’t your thoughts. They belong to someone else. You said that you were connected to your brother, you could pick up on his emotions…. Whatever this is, it’s a gift, and you have to control it, or else it’s going to control you. You are Lizzie’s son... She would never want you to hurt anyone, no matter what they did against you. Revenge and harming others isn’t what decent people do! She loves you more than life itself, so how do you think it would make her feel to know that her son is going murder someone?” Taking one hand off his bare chest, Scott brought it up and placed it alongside of Tristan’s cheek. The young man closed his eyes. “You need to come back to us. Find your way back home to the Shallow Bay, to me and your family. Please.” 

Out of the corner of his eye, Scott caught sight of the doctor now, motioning to him. “Bring him in here. Quickly.” Not quite knowing what he had planned, Scott took hold of Tristan’s hand and started to lead him in the direction of where the doctor was waiting. He didn’t want to hurt him, he was in a very delicate position and one wrong move could prove dangerous for all three of them. He had to be very cautious.

They had only taken a few steps when suddenly Tristan grabbed hold of his head and started to scream. “HE’S SICK!! HE’S SICK!! HE’S MAKING ME SICK!! HE’S POISION. GET HIM OUT OF MY HEAD SCOTT. MAKE HIM GO AWAY, I CAN’T STAND THE PAIN.”

Without waiting for Scott to act, the doctor ran toward Tristan, and grabbed one of his shoulders. “Hurry Scott, help me get him in there.”

“Why?” Scott asked. “What’s in that room?”

“A way to wake him up.” The doctor answered. 

With a little apprehension, Scott moved to the other side of Tristan and together they started to half carry, half drag him into the small room on the side of the infirmary. Just before they made it to their destination, Tristan snapped out of the throes of pain and fell back into his state of agitation. He started to squirm, trying desperately to free himself. Clutching on tighter than before, the two men struggled to get him into the dark room. As they approached, the doctor released his grip for a moment to activate the sensor to open the door, and Tristan took advantage of the moment and managed to free one of his arms. Scott never saw the sucker punch coming. All he saw was the young man break loose, and a fist come flying towards him, and then an immense pain shooting out in all directions from his midsection. Scott dropped down to his knees, as Tristan pulled his hand away, and the first stains of red blood appeared on his shirt. The well placed blow to his stomach had ripped open the stitches and tore the healing skin back open, undoing the hours of surgery from the day before. Tristan stood over Scott, seemingly mesmerized by his cries of pain and agony when the doctor grabbed him from behind. Caught off guard, he started to pull the young man backwards and almost had him into the room, when he started to once again break free. He was too strong for just one person to hold him. Taking a deep breath, Scott stood up and came barreling forward, once again grabbing Tristan’s shoulders and forcing him into the room. As the door opened, Scott could now see that the doctor had prepared the only way he knew that he could ‘wake’ Tristan up without any medical devices or drugs. It was a tall bath tub filled to the brim with freezing cold water and chunks of ice floating on it. Scott looked at it in panic. “Are you sure this is the way to do this? He’s already freezing, it might kill him!”

“It’s the only way. Scott, either we risk this and take a chance of losing him, or else we’re going to lose you both. You said that I need to grow the balls to make a decision; well I am making one right here and now. Either you help me get him in that water or else you’re going to die. Look at yourself, you’re bleeding out. If we stand here and debate this much longer, you won’t have a choice. So get him in that fucking tub so I can take care of you!” 

With great effort, the two men managed to get Tristan to the edge of the tub, where they ungracefully dumped him over the edge and into the waiting ice bath. His body hit the water with a loud splash, dragging the stained bed sheet in with him. He screamed so loudly that Scott thought that half of Prox could hear it. The doctor stepped forward and pushed Tristan’s head down, immersing him in the water, like a baptism and held him down until he was almost at the point of drowning. Tristan screamed, his cries subdued by the freezing cold water, becoming nothing but silent bubbles on the surface. His fingers turned white as he grabbed hold of the sides of the tub, and he held on tightly, trying to fight against the involuntary dunking. Pushing out underneath him, he struggled to stand, but the doctor had the upper hand and wouldn’t allow him any freedom of movement. He was fighting a losing battle. Clutching his midsection, Scott fell back against the far wall, trying not to notice the bright red streaks of blood that followed him across the room. After the fifth or sixth dunking, Tristan stopped fighting and went limp in the water. ‘Please let him be dead’ Scott thought to himself. As much as he loved the boy and swore to protect him, he didn’t want the poor kid to suffer with another fit of lunacy. He’d rather tell Lizzie that her son passed away, rather than reveal to her that he was delusional and possibly homicidal. Tristan’s eyes were still closed and his arm fell limp to the side of the tub. The doctor reached out and felt for a pulse. Without turning around to look at Scott, he picked up his radio and called for a medical team.

“Is he alive?” Scott asked, in a haze of pain.

Almost as if in response, Tristan opened his eyes and looked back at Scott. They were the most beautiful blue eyes he had ever seen, a shade brighter than Lizzie’s and filled with such youthful innocence that he thought his heart would break by merely looking at them. All the pain, all the confusion, had simply faded away along with the hazy amber color. It was if he was seeing the young man for the first time. Scott sank down onto the floor and the doctor joined him, pulling his shirt up and tending to his wound. Tristan leaned his head back on the porcelain tub, the waves of his hair wet and sticking close to his face. The white sheet swirled around in the water above his battered, bruised and naked body. He had an almost angelic look to him. “It wasn’t Benjamin.” Tristan whispered. On the floor next to the tub, Scott sighed quietly and closed his eyes, letting Tristan speak. “The voice inside of my head… I thought it was my brother, but I know now… it wasn’t. He is gone. Lost forever. She traded a soul for a soul, and Benjamin’s life was forfeit for that of a devil’s.” The drops of water slowly dripped off Tristan’s fingers and onto the floor as he kept his eyes trained on the ceiling. 

Scott didn’t know what to say to comfort the boy. His heart was in just as much pain as his body was. Tristan had confirmed what he was suspecting all along, that the child whom Ben took with him had in fact perished, leaving Lizzie with only one of her two babies left. He glanced over at Tristan lying in the tub and realized that he could never explain fully what happened to her son. All he could do was continue to keep him safe. The door to the room opened and the medical team came in to take Scott away for emergency surgery once again. He didn’t want to leave and tried to push them away. After the episode that just happened, Tristan needed him more than ever. He couldn’t leave him. Feeling sick and fighting the waves of agony, Scott tried to pull himself to his feet without assistance, but ended up losing his balance and falling back down to the slippery wet floor. Feeling defeated, and ashamed, Scott let loose a series of profanities under his breath and moaned in agony, pounding his fist against the floor. Then he heard a loud slosh of water, and saw Tristan rise up out of the tub, clutching the soaking wet sheet in his hands. At that moment, he looked so much like his father, Thomas that it was nearly impossible to tell them apart. He looked to the medics surrounding Scott and spoke to them in a soft, yet confidant tone. “Please get him to surgery right away.” The men exchanged curious glances amongst themselves and then turned to Scott for guidance, but found that he had hit his limit, passed out cold from the pain and loss of blood. The doctor barked some orders and quickly they followed Tristan’s instructions.

Hours later, Scott opened his eyes and thought he saw Thomas sitting at the foot of his bed. “I didn’t think I’d ever see you again. Am I dead?” He asked groggily.

“No.” Tristan responded gently. “But if you get out of that bed, you will be.”

Struggling to sit up, Scott managed to wiggle into a painful sitting position. His eyes fell on Tristan, dressed in his father’s tactical gear and smiling back at him. Gone were the dark circles underneath his eyes that gave him a haunted look, his skin had become healthier looking, and he was no longer trembling uncontrollably. “You look better.” Was all he managed to say.

Taking a deep breath, Tristan looked at Scott guiltily. “I apologize for what happened. I simply lost control of myself. I didn’t mean to hurt you or anyone else. It won’t happen again.”

“I know.” Scott replied. He noticed that not only did Tristan look like his father, but his words and tone in his voice was almost identical to Thomas’s as well. It was uncanny. If it wasn’t for the lack of signature curls and color of his eyes and hair, he could almost pass as a much younger version of him. “You couldn’t stop what was happening. None of us could.” He looked out the window, and the emergency lights that illuminated the path that led out and away from the base. Then landscape of Prox comforted him. “Whatever is going on over there at Dawn, we are nothing more than helpless victims to it. You, especially. I wish I could do something to help, but I can’t. We have to sit here and accept our fate, and that pisses me off more than anything.”

Tristan stood up and walked over to the window, turning his back on Scott. “With the sun gone, we only have enough resources to last a few more days. The temperature has started to drop again, and this time will be the last. Unless we do something about it, all the people here are going to die.”

“But what can we do? The FEC took all the resources that we had. The sun was the source of life for us in so many ways.” Scott sighed. “We can’t just snap our fingers and wish it to come back.”

“There is a way.” Tristan said, slowly turning around. 

The door opened up and a nurse walked in. It was the same nurse who had treated him earlier. “Hey good morning Scott! You know, this is getting to be a habit of the two of us meeting I think that…” She stopped, noticing Tristan standing at the window. “Oh. I didn’t see you there. Sorry. I’ll go now. I was just checking in. I’ll stop by later.” Hurrying as fast as she could, she scurried out the door.

“What was all of that about?” Scott asked.

Tristan crossed his arms in front of his chest. “They are suspicious of me, perhaps even a little afraid too. They have every right to be. I cannot hold them accountable for their prejudices; I’d certainly feel the same way. How can you trust someone who has grown from an infant to adult in a matter of hours and can’t explain how it came to be?”

Scott fumed. “You’re Thomas and Lizzie’s son. That should be all they need to show you respect. You don’t need to explain anything to them.”

Frowning, Tristan came to sit on the edge of Scott’s bed again. “It’s not that easy. Respect has to be earned with time and actions, and right now, I can only make good on one of those two things.” 

“Tristan, what are you planning on doing?” Scott asked.

Pulling out a chain that was tucked into the front of his shirt, he clutched at it and became distant as he spoke. “No one has ever dared to bring a deceased soul back to the realm of the living because it was obvious that there was a price to pay. Of course, we all assumed that it was just some religious garbage that no one would take seriously, but even so, no one was insane enough to try it. Except for Rhiannon. She assumed that it would be her burden to shoulder, but she was wrong. It would be all of us. By putting Burnley’s soul into the body of baby Benjamin, she disrupted the natural order of things, and upset the delicate balance of things here on Prox. All the weather fluctuations, the storms that came crashing through, these were all just warnings, which were ignored. The moment that she took my brother’s life, and replaced it with Burnley’s was the moment that our sun went dark and our fate was sealed.” Tristan stopped and let go of the trinket that he was holding onto so tightly. Scott could see the shining silver crescent moon hairpin that Lizzie had worn on her wedding day dangling from a silver chain around his neck. Noticing Scott looking at it, Tristan quickly tucked it back underneath his shirt and stood up, clearing his throat. “It all started with Burnley, and it will end with him.” He whispered.

Giving Tristan a stern look, Scott shook his head. A wave of panic started to run through him. He knew what Tristan was planning on doing, and couldn’t let him do it. There was no way he was letting the young man out of his sight ever again. “No. You’re not going after Burnley. It’s lunacy.”

“The preparations are already underway. I will be leaving within the hour. I would have left hours ago, but I wanted to remain here to make sure that you made it through surgery, and to say goodbye to you, and to leave a message for my mother, if she should ever return.” Tristan turned his gaze away from Scott. He couldn’t bear to see look of disappointment on his face.

Scott’s heart sank. He needed Tristan to stay. It was as simple as that. End of story. “You aren’t going anywhere, I won’t allow it. Lizzie WILL be back, and when she comes back home, she’s going to be looking for you. What am I supposed to do, tell her that her son went off on a suicide mission to save Prox? Throwing his life away on a fucking whim? No, I won’t do it. You are staying right here with the rest of us.”

Cocking his head to the side, Tristan looked at him in disgust. “You have no right to tell me what I can and can’t do here. Prox is on the brink of destruction and there is a chance to save it, but you’re not willing to take the risk and put forth the effort to try and make things right by letting me go. I am not doing this to try and prove a point, or anything stupid like that… I want a chance to save these people. It doesn’t matter if I fail and lose my life, because if I don’t succeed, then we’re all dead anyway.” He took a step forward toward Scott and forced himself to calm down. “Listen, I know that you feel as though I am your responsibility, and that you made a promise to my mother, but there comes a time when you have to let all of that go, and let me make my own decisions. This is my home, Scott, please let me protect it, let me try to save the ones that I love.”

The tension in the air had eased back a bit, and Scott found himself feeling a bit sympathetic for Tristan. In the few short hours since he had been found, the young man had become very aware and very intelligent. He was absorbing all the knowledge that was around him and processing it at an alarming rate. More so, his devotion to his parents and Prox was what impressed Scott the most. Tristan was growing up, turning into an adult, with adult responsibilities and duties, and there was nothing he could do to stop it. He would have to let him go. “What makes you think that you can defeat Burnley anyway? The last time anyone went up against that lunatic, it took four of them to take him out.”

Tristan lowered his voice, almost as if he was afraid of being overheard. “He’s weakened at the moment. I could feel it when he was inside of my head. Rhiannon brought his soul back and forced it into my brother’s body, which he was completely unprepared for. Burnley didn’t want to be reborn, it was forced upon him, and he fought it for as long as he could, even willing to fade away into nothingness and disappear. He held out for so long, but in the end, the pull was too strong and his spirit was forced to consume that of baby Benjamin’s and take over his body, thus taking his life… and mine as well.”

“So Burnley killed baby Ben and took his place, and because you were connected to him as twins, you suffered the same fate?”

“Yes… but something happened to me… something miraculous. After I felt my soul leaving my body, I saw them there in that dark place. A man and a woman. They felt familiar to me. I wasn’t afraid of them at all, even though they were shrouded in darkness. The man told me that it wasn’t my time to go yet, that I had much to accomplish on Prox, and that the people here needed me. When he spoke to me, his voice sounded much like my own, and it comforted me. I know that I heard it before. The woman said that she was sending me back, and giving me the strength I needed to save the world. The time for being a child was over, I would have to stand up and be a man for the first time, and that is exactly what happened. When I awoke, I was no longer an infant but as you see me now. This was the ‘gift’ that the woman in black gave me. It was her last of act atonement for the things she had done wrong.”

Sitting back against his pillows, Scott listened intently, completely dumbstruck what he was being told. Rhiannon had murdered baby Benjamin in hopes to get her son Burnley back to have a chance to raise all over again, but somehow, someone intervened and sent both boys back as adults, with perfect recollection of their memories, feelings and emotions from their prior lives. It was completely unbelievable, and yet somehow, it was all true. Tristan was standing there right in front of him, a strong young man willing to go out and save the world, both reckless and courageous. “So how is all this supposed to help you defeat Burnley?”

“Burnley was an Eden addict. They had been pumping that shit into him for years, since he was young, and then suddenly he was reborn into a body with only small traces of it, he instantly went into systematic shock, or withdrawal if you will. I know this because that’s what happened to me too. I felt all the pain he was going through, the hunger and the pain which started to devour him from the inside out. As he went through all the torment, I did as well.” Tristan’s eyes flashed with excitement. “Scott, I saw him there, lying on the bed, suffering in agony, unable to lift his head off the pillow, begging for death to come take him. Not only that, he’s also weakened by the fact that he knows that Brock is gone forever now, and there’s nothing left for him here on Prox. He WANTS to die. Now is the time to strike when he’s at his weakest moment. Both physically and mentally. There’s no way he’s going to be recovering from this, and if I leave now, I can catch him and kill that bastard. He’s the reason the sun is gone. His soul needs to be set free, or else Prox will remain dark and freeze to death. You have to let me do this. I am the only one who can.”

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Scott closed his eyes. He was starting to get a headache, and the nagging pain in his stomach from the fresh stitches was starting to become more pronounced. He sighed and glanced at the young man who stood at the side of his bed, desperately trying to get some sort of affirmation from him. “Do you still see or feel him inside of your head?” He asked.

Lowering his head, Tristan frowned. “I did for a while, but not anymore. It stopped when you and the doctor tossed me into the tub of ice. The shock made Burnley suddenly aware of the connection and severed it right away. It felt like having a door shut right in your face and then nailed shut. I don’t think that I will ever be able to get it back, and to be honest, I never want to either. The things inside of his head are just…. Horrific. Even thinking about them makes me sick. But… Scott… I don’t need to see or feel him to know that he’s in a lot of pain right now. The Eden drug doesn’t exist anymore, and without it, he’s helpless. Burnley is nothing more than a regular man now, a man that bleeds just like the rest of us. I am telling you Scott, he has no will to live. I FELT it!”

“I can’t physically stop you from going, Tristan, but I will tell you that I don’t feel comfortable with you going to Dawn. It doesn’t feel right. Burnley’s a seriously messed up fuck, and even though you think he’s at a disadvantage right now, there’s no telling what you’re going to run into once you get there. Dustin and Thomas ran into trouble the moment that they arrived at the gates. You will also have to deal with Rhiannon once you’re in there and she’s going to do everything she can to protect him, even if he doesn’t want her to. The odds are stacked against you, but if you feel as though you have to go, then go.” Scott’s voice cracked as he spoke, and he could do nothing to hide the sadness that he was feeling inside. “But I want you to remember that you don’t have to be the hero here.”

Tristan turned to the side, and in the dim light, Scott saw Thomas again, and heard his voice for one last time. “If I don’t do it, then who will?” Without looking back, he headed for the door and walked out of sight. Once again, Scott let something precious slip away from him.

Rhiannon lifted her head slightly, hearing a strange tapping sound coming down the hall. After crying herself into an exhausted mess, she finally put her head down and had fallen asleep against the far wall for a few hours. Now as she woke up she wiped the crust and tried tears away from her eyes and struggled to readjust to her surroundings. She didn’t know if it was night or day, or what part of Dawn that she was in. All she knew is that she was alone and her hands were covered in blood. Standing up, she loosened her hair from the braid that fell down over her shoulders and shook out the long tendrils of her straw colored hair. Trying her best to smooth through it with her fingers, she knew that she had to look good for when her husband came back for her, he wouldn’t just leave her here. They were meant to be together forever. 

Walking across the room, she suddenly came to a halt, the tips of her boots standing near the edge of a small pile of black ash. Her stomach turned. This was the evidence of her terrible crime, the remnants of an innocent life that she had taken with her own hands. Gazing down at the ash, she waited, anticipating a moment of grief to push its way through the surface of her emotions, but none came. She knew that she should be feeling guilty, or terrible for taking a child’s life, but it wasn’t her child, and thus couldn’t feel anything for it. To Rhiannon, he was nothing more than a necessary sacrifice that had to be made to get her child back. She had to kill him to bring Burnley back, and since it didn’t work, she’d go and find the other one and try again. One way or another she was going to have her son; her own little baby to hold in her arms and tuck into bed at night which no one could take away. All she had to do was wait for Benjamin to return and carry her away to the safety of the Shallow Bay. 

Sighing, she stepped forward, kicking at the pile of ash and sending it scattering across the room in a thin cloud. “You're worthless.” She whispered. It was at that moment when she heard the noise again that woke her from her slumber. The sound of boots coming down the hall. Straightening her back, she stood up tall and drew in a long breath with a lie ready on her lips, waiting to meet her husband. The door to the room opened up and the expression on Rhiannon’s face turned to one of confusion. It wasn’t Benjamin who came to find her, it was someone else. She was a small woman with long, black hair that was tangled and matted around her face, obscuring it from view. Her back was slightly hunched as her arms hung down at her sides, her hands contorted and twisted into massive black claws that looked like they could pierce through anything. She wore a Messenger uniform, but it was so badly ripped and torn that it was barely recognizable, exposing spots of oddly colored blueish gray skin underneath the material. The woman lifted her head, letting the tendrils of hair fall away and Rhiannon let out a gasp. She knew her. It was Lizzie Bell. 

“Oh Lizzie, what have you done to yourself?” Rhiannon asked out loud.

The creature before her snarled and stepped into the light, and now she could see that Lizzie’s once beautiful face was deformed with large blue veins pulsating through it, winding down to her neck and shoulders. Razor sharp teeth protruded from her mouth which was dripping with noxious, foul smelling saliva that made Rhiannon almost gag from just the sight of it. The worst part of the transformation had to be her eyes. Lizzie’s beautiful blue eyes were clouded over and hazy, filled with a milky whiteness, the pupils almost nonexistent. “I am what your son wanted me to become. All this evolution is because of him… and them. They are all with me now, all the lost souls of the FEC members that you forced into a frozen nightmare for a year, cursed to live in darkness and madness. I have taken them into myself. I can feel them inside of my head, inside of my body, waiting patiently. They used to scream at me, begging me to help them, but now they sing to me, and comfort me. They are my new family, and soon I will give birth to a new army of Carnivores free from wires and signals, with no masters commanding them and telling them what to do. They will rule over Prox as they were meant to do for so many years. The FEC will bow to us and be our slaves.”

Taking a step back, Rhiannon realized that she had nowhere to go. There was no other exit out of the room, except for the one that Lizzie was standing at, and now she suddenly felt very trapped. “I don’t know why you’ve allowed this to happen to yourself, but maybe when Benjamin gets back here he can help you. He went out there to investigate the Infirmary, if you want to wait here for him, that’s fine with me.” She took another step back towards the wall, away from the sickening creature in front of her. “You just stay… right there… and I will wait… right over… here.” She said nervously. 

Lizzie’s head twitched slightly, and she began to sniff the air and shuffle forward. “I am not here for The Shepherd of the Damned. He will claim his own souls on this night, and yours is not one of them.”

Swallowing back her fear, Rhiannon started to tremble. “Then why are you here?”

Coming to a stop in the center of the room, where a tiny pile of burnt ash still remained, Lizzie bent down and ran her twisted claws through it, tearing huge three inch deep gashes in the concrete floor as she did so. She growled at the woman across the room from her. “You know why I am here.”

The tears had already started to spill out of her eyes as Rhiannon nodded silently.

Lizzie stood back up, carrying a handful of ash in the palm of her hand. She slowly let it fall back down to the floor, sifting through her fingers like sand running down and hourglass. “You committed the worst sin that a mother could make. You murdered a child. MY CHILD! TO BRING YOUR BASTARD SON BACK FROM THE DEAD!!” She screamed, her voice reverberating and echoing around in the small room. It sounded like nails on a chalkboard. Rhiannon cringed and covered her ears for a moment. As the sound faded away, Lizzie spoke again, but this time more quietly. “As payment, I am going to take your life. I will rip you apart as you did to him, and you will choke own still beating heart. You will suffocate on your own organs, and know what it’s like to truly suffer. This is the price you will pay for ending the life of an innocent and imprisoning countless others. When I am through with you, you will be begging for the Shepherd of the Damned to come for you and end your misery, but he will not come for you.”

Rhiannon was filled with fear. She wished that Benjamin would hurry and return. He could take care of the sick thing that was threatening her and make short work of it. Ben always protected her; all she had to do was stall and try to buy herself some time. “Lizzie, I did what I had to do to get my son back. You would have done the same thing too. Burnley didn’t deserve to have the life that he was given. The FEC… no… Selene Bell took him away from me and forced the Eden drug on him. He was a good boy, he would never hurt anyone. He loved both Ben and I so much, but they twisted him, and turned him into a monster… he didn’t have a chance to grow up like little boys should, splashing around in mud puddles and going for walks on the boardwalk with his father to go get ice cream. I wanted to give him the chance to do all that again. That child… baby Benjamin wasn’t really meant to live anyway. He was a mistake, a side effect that no one wanted. You know this because you almost got rid of him.” Rhiannon saw Lizzie’s eye flutter. She had hit a nerve. Feeling confident, she started to pick away at it. “That’s right, everyone else thinks that you were so adamant about keeping both children, you were the saint who was willing to give up her life for both of her kids, but that wasn’t the total honest truth was it?” 

Looking down at the pile of ash at her feet, one single tear slipped down Lizzie’s cheek.

“That’s right, I know what you were thinking. I am a mother too, we share the same thoughts.” Rhiannon gloated, moving closer to Lizzie. She slipped her hand into the pocket of her flight jacket and wound her fingers around the handle of the knife she had hidden away, the same weapon that she had used to murder Lizzie’s own child. “As you were lying there in the sick bay of Dawn, in the middle of the night, you looked over at Thomas who was sleeping in his chair right next to your bed and start to wonder how you could do this to him. How could you let his child suffer and rot inside of you, becoming poisoned by the one fathered by Burnley? Was one life worth more than another. It was never about Thomas’s earth blood mixing with your Prox blood, was it? That was all a lie. Burnley’s soul was festering inside of the child in you, and all you could think about was ripping it out and making the pain go away, so that the other may live.”

“I didn’t know what Burnley had done to me. I didn’t know the child was his.” Lizzie muttered.

Rhiannon was only a few steps away from Lizzie now. She could smell the stench of decay and rot on the woman’s body. The Carnivore DNA that was changing her body was warping it, taking away her human form and making her more animal like which was causing large sections of flesh to just fall away. Rhiannon knew that she had to keep herself focused; one slip up and Lizzie would be on her in a second. With her painted red lips, she continued to shame and ridicule her without mercy. “Yes. You did, but you blocked it out. After he raped you, you returned to the Shallow Bay with Thomas, the man that you had been pining over for years and suddenly were very happy. You wanted both of those kids to be his, but deep inside, you knew what was growing inside of you, but you were afraid to tell Thomas. You didn’t want him to get upset with you, or hate you. The thought of being without him now was unbearable. Then when you got sick and you saw the man that you loved sitting there, worrying himself to death over you and the children, you were prepared to do whatever it took to make sure that he stayed with you, and HIS child. Luckily enough, Aaron conveniently found a ‘cure’ for you and all three of you were able to go back to the Shallow Bay, as happy as ever… but you never told Thomas, you never admitted to yourself that you would have easily murdered Burnley’s child if it came down to it… and that is what makes you no better than I. So you can keep all your Alice in Wonderland stories, and keys to places like Never-land. Because it is all pretend innocence......... just like you.”

‘she’s distracting you…she’s forcing you to feel worthless human emotions…she split open the chest of your infant, and held it’s beating heart in the palm of her hands…close your eyes and give into the pain that you are feeling…let it merge with OUR pain, and let us become one…punish her…punish her…punish her…PUNISH HER!!! Inside of her head, the voices started screaming again. Lizzie pulled her lips back and snarled at the blond woman in front of her. Feeling an incredible strength in her legs, she sprang forward, diving straight for Rhiannon with the claws outstretched. Rhiannon slipped the knife from her pocket and swung it in a wide arch in front of her, not aiming but hoping to take a chunk out of Lizzie’s gut as she dove forward. Lizzie was much too fast for her, and suddenly her claws were wrapped around both of Rhiannon’s small wrists, and the momentum carried both women down onto the floor. The impact knocked the breath out of her and Rhiannon could do nothing as Lizzie’s claws closed in and snapped the bones of her wrists like they were nothing more than kindling. Screaming out in pain, Rhiannon kicked and flailed about, trying to get the smaller woman off of her, but it was of no use. Lizzie fought with enhanced muscle mass and strength pinning her opponent down with a crushing weight that was relentless and unforgiving. “Get off of me!” Rhiannon screamed. “Ben… Benjamin help me!”

Sitting up slightly, Lizzie looked down at the prey trapped underneath her, her long greasy black locks of hair falling down away from her face like dark streamers. She grinned, showing a massive array of sharpened teeth. “I told you, The Shepherd won’t save you. He doesn’t want anything to do with a bitch like you anymore. All you’ve brought him is sorrow and sadness, the mother of deception.” Lizzie leaned down close to Rhiannon’s face, so close that they were nose to nose. The stench horrid and disgusting, she tried to turn her face away, but Lizzie shot out with one hand and yanked her head back. “You’ve lied to him so many times that you don’t even know what the truth is. Every time that you open those red lips, one more lie slips out and he ends up falling for it. I wonder what they taste like… those pretty little lies. I guess I will just have to find out for myself.” Grinning, Lizzie leaned down and opened her mouth, placing her lips over Rhiannon’s. Rhiannon started to scream as Lizzie forced her lips open with her tongue, and shoved it inside of her mouth. The black rot and filth dripped down filling her mouth and slipping down the back of her throat, making her gag. Struggling, her airway being choked off, Rhiannon kicked at Lizzie’s stomach, hoping that a quick sudden blow would knock her off, but Lizzie was filled with anger, fueled with rage, and there was no getting free. Gagging and gasping for breath, Rhiannon looked up into the white, hazy light blue eyes and saw nothing there. No emotions, no soul, nothing. It was terrifying. With her broken wrists, she tried to reach up to grab some of Lizzie’s hair, but her hands wouldn’t respond. They were nothing more than fragile, shattered shards of bone and tendon. flopping around at the ends of her arms. Shifting her weight slightly Lizzie moved down Rhiannon’s body, and ran a clawed hand down her side, shredding the fabric of her flight jacket and the shirt underneath. Rhiannon’s eyes went wide and she started to scream again, feeling those twisted fingers move up to her chest and start to fondle her breast. Where was Ben? She wanted Ben to come back. Somehow finding some strength, she bit down hard onto Lizzie’s tongue as it explored the depths of her mouth, and she immediately pulled away, and sat up, the black rot smeared all over her pale face.

“BENJAMIN! BENJAMIN! HELP ME PLEASE! HELP! SHE’S GOING TO KILL ME! WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU? GET BACK HERE! I NEED YOU!” Rhiannon pleaded, her voice starting to fade.

Tilting her head, Lizzie rolled her eyes and gave the woman trapped underneath her a mocking glance, licking off her lips. “Now it’s your turn to face the truth. There’s only one person that Benjamin truly cares about, and it’s not you.” Rhiannon started sobbing, the tears streaming out of the corners of her eyes now, gushing like a waterfall. Lizzie smiled. “That’s right. You can scream and cry all you want, he won’t answer you. And since we’re being so open and honest here, I think you should know…he led me to you.”

“No! You’re wrong. Benjamin loves me. We’re going to have our family together, so you can just fuck off, you little whore.” 

Lizzie grabbed a handful of Rhiannon’s blonde hair and yanked her head back. “I think it’s time for you to stop talking now....I'll show you how to bite.” Diving down, she brought her mouth over Rhiannon’s again and sank her sharpened teeth into her tongue. Rhiannon moaned in pain, and felt Lizzie’s other hand start to dig into the soft tissue of her breast, the dirty palm moving over her sensitive nipple. As her fingers started to penetrate the first layer of flesh, Lizzie’s jaw clamped down with intense pressure and she started to pull away, clutching Rhiannon’s tongue in her mouth. Her cries were like a melody to the voices inside of her head. The sound of the muscle being ripped from her mouth made Rhiannon even sicker, and the shrill pain spread out through her body was like nothing she ever experienced before. Each of Lizzie’s sharp, glistening teeth sunk deep into the mass of muscle and flesh, and ripped it to shreds as she moved her jaw up and down. Rhiannon moaned and whimpered, her mouth quickly filling up with blood. For several minutes this torture went on, until she was satisfied that Rhiannon had suffered enough. Lizzie suddenly moved back and the last tendons and ribbons of sinew broke free, releasing the tongue from her mouth. Rhiannon immediately began to gag, choking on her own blood. Lizzie spit the useless piece of meat from between her teeth and onto the floor where it hit the concrete and landed with a loud splat. Leaning back down, Lizzie kissed the corner of Rhiannon’s blood stained mouth and whispered. “You want to play with people’s hearts, and manipulate them? Then let me give you a taste of what it truly feels like.”

Her hand still resting over one of Rhiannon’s breasts, Lizzie slowly dug her claws in and felt the tissue start to tear underneath her finger tips. Lizzie laughed as Rhiannon’s face contorted in pain. Arching her fingers, Lizzie grabbed hold of the meat and muscle of the breast and with a quick yank of her arm, pulled it right from her chest. Rhiannon’s moans had become nothing more than dull squeaks of pain now. She was still conscious and feeling every single moment of agony and torture. Lizzie looked down at her victim for a moment and saw her staring back up at her with a pleading look on her face. Reaching down, Lizzie ran her fingers through Rhiannon’s hair, soothing her. “It will be all over soon, I promise. There’s just one thing left to do…keep breathing.” Resting her face alongside that of her prey, Lizzie’s hand went back to the massive, gaping wound on Rhiannon’s chest where her breast had once been. With a quick movement, she drove her black claws down underneath the skin, breaking through the ribs and breast bone pushing forward around the lungs, exploring the inside of Rhiannon’s chest until she found her heart. “Ah ha there it is… I was beginning to think you didn’t have one.” Her fingers slipped around it as it pulsed and beat rapidly. “You don’t love Benjamin, you don’t love Burnley. The only thing that you care about is yourself, and now comes the moment when you will truly taste all the wickedness that has been building up inside your heart.” With those words, Lizzie grabbed hold of Rhiannon’s heart and in one fluid motion, ripped it out. Holding it up in front of her, the blood poured down Lizzie’s arm, and Rhiannon found that she couldn’t take her eyes off of it. A massive ball of tissue and muscle, it still pulsed and beat, shimmering brightly in the dim light. Her breaths came in shallow gasps now, and Lizzie reached down and pulled Rhiannon’s bottom jaw down and smiled before shoving the mound of flesh inside the woman’s mouth. 

There was a terrible gurgling noise as Rhiannon suffocated. Large bubbles pooled up around the edges and corner of mouth, popping and leaking a mixture of blood and saliva onto the floor. Finally, she stopped moving and Lizzie slid down off of her body. Sitting next to the corpse of the woman who murdered her child, Lizzie couldn’t help but to feel shame for what she had done. The feeling of shame crept into her slowly, moving into her mind more rapidly with every second that passed. All the strength and insane motivation she had moments earlier seem to fade away and die after the terrible deed had been done. Starting to feel more like herself, Lizzie was overwhelmed with sadness and wanted the consuming numbness to come back. She didn't want this, she didn't want to feel anything again. Why was she forced to come to her senses now and deal with this? She looked at the blood and bits of flesh that covered hands that weren’t hers anymore and started to cry. She had made her decision and now she could never go back home to see Tristan anymore. Why had she done this?

‘why do you weep?’

Bringing her knees up to her chest, Lizzie wrapped her arms around them and rested her head down for a moment. The smell of blood was everywhere, making her sick. She couldn’t even look at the dark shape lying next to her. “I never wanted it this way; I never wanted to hurt anyone. This was wrong and it hurts to think about what I’ve done. I want to go home.”

‘you know that can never happen…you begged us for help and we gave you the strength to overcome these human emotions and take your vengeance out on the one who murdered your child…and now it’s your turn to repay that debt and help us…you belong to us now…”

“I’ve made a mistake, a terrible mistake. Scott was right, I could have fought this. I didn’t have to give in a let it all happen… I just didn’t have enough strength to believe in myself. Thomas always told me that I was stronger than I thought, but without him there reassuring me, I… I… just faltered.” Lizzie muttered underneath her breath. “And now… I am too weak, to tired and too far gone to do anything about it. I’ve let everyone down. Please just take this pain away from me.”

‘not everyone…dear girl…you are our mother…our savior…the one who will give birth to a new generation of Carnivores…we will make you stronger than you can ever imagine and nothing will ever hurt you again…we will never leave you…but first… you must feed…and free yourself from the last vestiges of humanity…only then can you be ours…’

Precious moments ticked by as I stood there in that room, waiting for Keith to return. I didn’t know how far the infirmary was located from the residential quarters here at Dawn, but I suspected that it couldn’t be far. He was taking too long and it started to fill me with worry. If something had happened to him out there, it was all my fault for letting him go alone. The solitude of being by myself in the massive, empty base, topped with the fact that I was sitting in a room with Shaun’s corpse made me feel uneasy, and I wanted to get moving. I couldn’t stand to be there much longer and made a decision to head out. Grabbing a piece of paper, I scrawled a quick message on it for Keith just in case I missed him so that he knew where I was going. It was important that I get to the medical supplies in the Infirmary as soon as possible if I was going to save Benjamin. 

Starting off down the hallway, I noticed how cold it was in the corridors that ran the length of the enormous base. It would be easy for Keith to get lost along the way, and take a misstep to end up someplace else, so I knew that I had to be extra careful to avoid the same thing happening to me. While I walked, I remembered the vision that the child had shown me and a chill went down my spine. I severely disliked Burnley and I couldn’t comprehend why he wanted to help me. The man raped me and left me for dead just to tease and ridicule his father. He was a heartless, emotionless sadist who got off on pain and torture. There were so many nights when I would lie awake in bed at night, turning away from Ben and think about how I felt when the bastard’s hands were all over me. He didn’t deserve a second chance to live, but I wasn’t here to stop that, not anymore. I was here to save Ben. 

I hoped that I would run into Keith along the way, I desperately needed his help if my plan were to succeed. The idea was that there were still traces of the Eden drug which flowed through Ben’s veins which was driving him insane and leading him to become the Shepherd of the Damned. If we could just subdue him long enough to do a transfusion and get all the tainted blood out of him, and replace it with a donor’s blood, then he might have a chance. He gave up his wings once before and became human, and I was certain that he could do it again, but I needed Keith to help me. I might be able to distract him for a moment, but I knew that I wouldn’t be able to subdue him alone. I needed help, and I prayed that when I caught up to Keith, I could persuade him to help me. We were on the same side, and wanted the same thing, I had to agree to it or else we wouldn’t have a chance.

I had been so foolish not to see the slow change in Benjamin over the year that we had spent together at the Shallow Bay, and his descent into darkness, because I was more focused on my own happiness. I realized that love isn’t for the good of one person, it’s meant to be shared by those we choose to take on as partners, friends, family and loved ones. I foolishly shut everyone out and centered my world on Ben, thus smothering him and becoming blind to what he really needed, and that was a little space to breathe. I had acted like a child, and I wanted to be forgiven. I would do anything to fix what I had broken, even if that meant I had to empty every single drop of blood out of my veins. 

As I walked through the twisting and turning corridors, I started to notice that my journey was taking longer to accomplish than I had planned. I stopped and looked around at the unfamiliar walls and doors that surrounded me and realized that due to my silent reverie, and lack of attention, I had become lost. “Fuck” I muttered underneath my breath and turned around to face each of the winding halls that looked completely identical, with no way of knowing which way I should go. In the back of my head, I heard that little boy laughing at me and it was infuriating. 

Deciding to throw caution to the wind, and take my chances with whatever would happen, I started to call out for Keith, down each one of the corridors that I came across. “Keith! Keith! Where are you?” I covered a decent amount of ground and he wasn’t responding, that is when I knew I was fucked. Looking around, I considered trying to find my way back to the room where I had left Shaun. At least if I backtracked, I would be able to tell if Keith had been there, and it would give me a new starting point. Walking for a few more minutes, I realized that it was now impossible, I was completely lost. Angry and frustrated, I let out a cry of despair and threw my fist up against the wall in fury. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do now. I had this great plan on how to save the man that I loved, but I couldn’t even seem to do anything to accomplish it because I didn’t know where the fuck I was. I had to keep going. I couldn’t stop moving. Benjamin was here somewhere, and one way or another, I would find him. I lost Brock, I lost Thomas, I lost Selene, and Shaun. No more. We were done losing people. 

Willing my feet to move, I started off down the hall again, and apbruptly came to a halt. There was a door here with a flashing green light right in front of me. I turned and looked around. Keith could have come this way and left it open. This was the entrance to the infirmary. I found it after all. Hitting the sensor, the door slid open in front of me and I stepped inside. The first thing I noticed was the massive size of the room which was oddly lit with very dim lighting. I was wrong, this wasn’t the infirmary but instead some kind of observation room. I turned to leave and then heard a sound of something snapping behind me. The hair on my arms stood on end. Then I picked up the very disctinct scent of blood hanging in the air. I pulled the gun out of my bag and armed it. Glancing down, I saw that it only had enough time for one charge. I swallowed back my fear and slowly turned back around and let my eyes fall on the dark shape in the middle of the floor. 

I brought my hand up to my mouth to keep from crying out. The sight in front of me was horrific. There was a body of a blond woman, spread out in a pool of blood, her face and upper body ripped apart and torn to bits. I could easily see the glistening muscle and bone beneath the shredded layers of flesh, rendering her completely unrecognizable. Crouched down on top her was some sort of creature, clad in layers of black ripped fabric, which split open and revealed a skeletal spine sticking out towards me. It didn’t notice my entrance to the room, being completely absorbed in the daunting task of digging it’s twisted claws into the blond woman’s stomach and disemboweling her with unnerving precision. Each time it drove those claws in, I could hear intestines shifting and sliding about as they were pulled out and squeezed tightly, until they popped and then devoured with in the creature’s gnawing teeth. It was making a meal out of the flesh and bone of the poor woman on the floor, and from the sound of it, incredibly enjoying it with each smack of the lips. I wanted to run away, shut the door behind me and forget about what I had just seen, but I couldn’t just turn my back on it. This was some unholy creature created by the FEC, a substitute for the Carnivores perhaps, and I couldn’t let it escape. It was my duty to make sure that it didn’t leave these walls. 

Bringing one arm up to cover my nose and mouth from the awful stench, I slowly raised the weapon and aimed it at the center of the creatures back. The red laser targeting system projected out across the room and displayed the red dot right on the target that I wanted. I took a deep breath and prepared to fire, when suddenly the creature interrupted its meal and slowly turned around to face me. It’s strangely opaque white eyes focused on me for a moment, as bits of bloody flesh dropped away from it’s maw. “What are you?” I whispered.

A low, guttural growl was my only answer. Keeping the gun raised and pointed at it, I watched it slowly stand up and start to stagger over to me. I could now see that it once had female features, but whatever the FEC had done to the poor girl distorted them and warped them into a shape that was almost unrecognizable. Chunks of her hair were falling out, and her paper think skin was like a road-map of twisting and winding blue pulsing veins. My heart went out to the poor soul. The Carnivores were horrifying themselves, but this… this was something completely different. She wasn’t controlled by anyone or anything, but a wild viscous creature that found it’s way in to Dawn from a unguarded door and left free to roam the halls, looking for it’s next meal. Still moving towards me, I found that I couldn’t take my eyes off of her, she kept walking right at me, her mouth twisted to what looked like a smile that showed every single one of her razor sharp teeth. She was only a few feet away from me, when I shouted to her. “Stop! Get away from me.” 

The creature didn’t hesitate, but raised her arms up, extending her claws and moved faster, coming right at me now. The smell of the rotting flesh assaulted my nostrils and made my eyes water. I backed up to the door, which had shut behind me. “I said get away from me!!” I yelled as loud as I could, trying to warn it off, but now I could see that it didn’t care. It was coming right for me, those claws reaching up for my throat, waiting to make me its next meal. I had to find Benjamin, I had to save him. I wasn’t here for anything else. This thing in front of me had to go. Put it out of it’s misery and curse the FEC, that’s what I had to do. I wanted to save that one shot for Burnley, but I made the decision to use it right here and now. It felt like the right thing to do, to show mercy. “I am sorry they did this to you, and I am sorry I can’t help you. I hope you find peace.” Holding the weapon with both of my hands to steady the shaking, I aimed for the creatures head and pulled the trigger. 

There was a bright flash of light, and then the sickening scent of burnt flesh. The gun in my hand immediately went into overload and shut down. The shot rang true and hit it’s mark. The creature lay at my feet in a miserable ball of rotting flesh. A sense of relief washed over me. It was better this way. Whoever she was, she wouldn’t be in pain anymore. Not wanting to remain in the room with the foul smelling thing, I turned around, facing the door when suddenly I heard a small voice call my name. “Dustin?” The hand in which I still clutched the gun shook uncontrollably. I started to turn around. “No… don’t… don’t look…. At me…”

I lowered my head and felt my stomach start to churn. “Lizzie?”

“Yes…” she answered in a small voice.

An overload of emotion started to wash over me. I wanted to scream, I wanted to cry, I couldn’t stop trembling. “What happened to you?”

She didn’t answer at first, so I stood there, looking at the blank space of the door in front of me wishing that I was someplace else. I couldn’t believe what I had just done. “Thomas said… I was strong enough to fight it…. I didn’t believe him…. but…. Now I do… and it’s too late…. “

I had to force the tears back. “I can get help for you, there’s a Infirmary here.” I blurted out without thinking. There was no way I could get help for her. She was too far gone. I killed her. 

“No.” She said quietly. “Let me die in peace… you have to go find Benjamin, it’s very important that you find him.”

“I will, Lizzie. I am going to find him and save him. The Shepherd of the Damned won’t win. I will fight for everything I have to get him back. So many people have sacrificed themselves for him. I won’t let their deaths be in vain. He’s all that I have.” I said through clenched teeth.

Lizzie’s voice started to fade. “You’re wrong. We need the Shepherd.”

I turned my head slightly to the side and caught a glimpse of her contorted body lying on the floor behind me. I was instantly revolted by the sight of so much gore and rot and had to turn back away quickly. “What do you mean?”

A raspy, gurgling noise that was only vaguely reminiscent of Lizzie’s sweet voice sounded off behind me. “You have to go now… Thomas is coming for me… we’re going to be together at last… I can see him now, standing there under the moonlight, gazing up at the stars…he can tell me their names....”

“Lizzie? Lizzie?” I called to her over and over. There was no response. I knew that she was dead. Feeling numb, I stepped out of the door and into the hallway. I heard it slide shut behind me and then I pushed the button on the panel to lock it. I remembered Benjamin locking the dying Burnley away back in the FEC base. A chill ran down my spine. Enough was enough. Standing there, alone in the middle of Dawn, I suddenly felt the weight of the world descending on me. One by one I was forced to watch the ones that I love die, and I couldn’t take it anymore. Clutching the gun in my hand I let out a loud scream and threw it down the hallway with all that I had. I heard it hit the wall and then clatter down onto the floor, skittering to a halt near an intersection.

I threw myself against the wall, screaming. “Why… why.. fucking god, why are you doing this to me? What have I done to deserve this punishment? AHHHH!!” I punched the wall, I punched the door. I ran my fingers through my hair, pulling out large sections. 

He came around the corner and paused, seeing my weapon laying there discarded at his feet. I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and turned around to see him standing there with a blank, expressionless look on his face. Our eyes met and I was instantly petrified. With the grace of a cat, Burnley bent down and picked up the gun, holding it loosely in the palm of his hand. When he spoke, his voice was soft like velvet and laced with arrogance. “I think it's about time we talked, Dustin.”


End file.
